Category: Horror Reads

5 out of 5 Stars

Well, since this is pretty self-explanatory, it as an Anthology of Horror Stories (or Drabbles) each told in 100 words. So, I will skip the synopsis and go straight in to a couple of my favourite stories and my GUSHING praise!!

I can’t tell you all how much I LOVED this Anthology!! It is so hard to give you all examples of the amazing stories in this because I found myself highlighting almost every story in it! Lol!! The different views on what a Horror Story should be were amazing, so many different thoughts! Some were gruesome, some were psychological, some were scary because it deals in Reality and really makes you think, and some were silly… but in a scary kind of way!

I’m going to share a couple of MY personal favourites with you, but I’m not going to tell you which category they fall into so you will have to figure it out!!

Just a Game

Christopher Motz

Jack gave each of his four friends a small, clear capsule and took his place in the circle. “How does this game work?” Jenna asked. “You all wait and see who can last the longest,” he replied. “But if we’re all going to be trippin’, who’s going to be keeping time?” Mary asked. “I will,” Jack replied. “This is stupid,” Brian laughed. “Who ever heard of a game where the point is to stay high the longest?” “Well that’s the fun part,” Jack smiled. “I didn’t give you acid.”

“Oh, it’s Ecstasy,” Jason shouted happily.

“Nope,” Jack laughed, “it’s cyanide.”

Best of Friends

Stefan Lear

I’m a people person. I value the bonds, the memories, I create with another person. I’m not into superficial friendships, though. I want to explore relationships that will last a lifetime. I want to know you inside and out. I’ll do whatever it takes to completely and utterly understand my friends. It’s my belief that you never really know someone until you’ve looked someone in the eye as they beg for their life. “I’m sorry,” were the last words whimpered with his final breath. His eyes faded dull and all life left his body. I am not a superficial friend.

Disregarded Advice

Ike Hamill

BANG! He cowers under the blankets, holding his breath, knowing that… BANG! BANG! …two more will come. A few days ago, when the pounding first came, he convinced himself that it was only a vivid dream. Two nights ago, he blamed the wind and spent the next day securing the shutters on the north side of the house. When he was a boy, his mother warned him. “The third time it comes, don’t be home.” For two days, he could have been on the road, getting far away. “It will come for blood,” she said. He hears the doorknob click.

A Demonic Pact

Billy San Juan

There’s a demon in my bedroom. It follows me with its fiery eyes, daring me to escape. I tried to run already, but he roared, and I fell. My arm landed on the corner of the dresser. I can already feel the bruise forming. It knows the bruise hurts. It knows to grab me by the arm, to squeeze the bruise. To cover my mouth with his clawed talon so I can’t scream. I’ve been trapped with this demon before, but I can usually escape. Not tonight. Tonight, I think I will die. I can’t believe I married this man.

And the creme de la creme. In the midst of all the “Stormy” Weather going on, I’m sure you will all appreciate this one!

Knock knock..

C.S Anderson

They were at the fucking door. They had found her. Again. Shit. She was sure she had masked her path to this place, scrubbed it squeaky damn clean, as a mater of fact, but she must have screwed up somewhere because here they were. Knocking at her damn door. Crap. She took a moment to consider her options. It didn’t take long. They all sucked. Which just meant picking the one that sucked the least. Which also sucked. Moving gingerly to the door, she undid the security chain with shaking hands. “Trump Supporters!” they chirp at her.

God help her…

This is just a TINY TASTE of what this Anthology has to offer! These writers are all so talented, I wish I could have showcased them all… but, that would sort of defeat the purpose! I really took my time with this one and just read a story here and there to savour it and really think about each story! Some of them are so deep for only 100 words!! I honestly can’t recommend this book ENOUGH!!

Kevin J. Kennedy himself said it best in his Afterword when he says

“I always feel that every book takes you on a journey, with anthologies often taking you on several. The stories in this book are extremely short, but I think all of the authors involved packed a lot into them. I hope you enjoyed our anthology of drabbles and, if you are new to flash fiction, I hope we have made a convert of you.”

I really hope that you allow yourself to be converted and get this book! The nice thing about each story being so short is that you can pick it up and read a little any time! (it would make a great bathroom book! Some of the stories may even scare the crap out of you!! Lol! To get things started, I’m going to give you links to go pick up a copy for yourself!!

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4 out of 5 Stars

This is your typical night in a haunted house horror, but DEFINITELY not your typical writing for it. In very vivid prose we get a story of 4 very different horror writers brought to a supposed ‘haunted house’ to be interviewed for a horror fan blog called Wrightwire.

The Mainstream Hack Sam McGarver-

“He had started this new novel at least a hundred times. He had exhausted more first sentences than he could remember. They were single lines on one-page documents, saved on his hard drive in a folder named, appropriately, “Crap.” And perhaps Sam’s most inspired first sentence: Sam, you suck as a writer and will never write anything that anyone cares about because you are a fraud and your books are shit.”

The decrepit Old Has-Been Sebastian Cole-

“the golden days of Beaver Cleaver and Good Humor Bars and ‘There’s nothing to fear but fear itself’ are over . They’ve been raped and tortured and left for dead. The only thing to fear these days is everything.”

The Christian Bullshit Artist, Daniel Slaughter-

“Do evil, and you will be punished. Only the characters that are pure of heart triumph in the end. Evil never wins in my books. Good does, because it’s from God.”

And the Unforgivably Brutal T.C Moore-

“Horror no longer goes bump in the night. Horror stuffs the bodies of dead hookers in his crawl space and then pulls a twelve-hour nursing shift taking care of your sick mother. Horror sits in his cubicle and fantasises about sucking the toes of the high school cheerleader he plans to strangle after work. Horror stays awake at night dreaming up ways to hurt you and your family and your pets and everything you hold dear. Horror is perversion.”

They all have very different views of what horror means to them…Until that horror starts to prey on them in very REAL ways..

“Breathing. It’s like the house is breathing. But softly. Like its realxed. Content.

Content to what? he asked himself.

To be here with us. To listen.”

I think that Sam expresses it best when he says “In horror, there’s no such thing as ‘out of sight, out of mind.’ That thing will be back, and it will take over your life. That’s the root of all fear: the loss of control. Not being able to stop the evil.”

Also, everyone who reads or has read this book HAS to tell me I’m not crazy and that if this is ever made into a movie Wainwright HAS to be played by Matt Smith… Right??Any Doctor Who fans?!?! Skinny pants, wavy brown hair, U.K accent (ok, so they say Irish.. We can work with it) and a weird smooth clay face?? COME ON!!

If you’d like to learn more about Scott Thomas and his writings feel free to check out his twitter account:

@ninjawhatever

Kill Creek is Best Served With

A Modern Cocktail

Well, after reading this book all I could think of was whisky, because it’s mentioned a lot! Lol! (A man after my own heart!) I’m pretty sure that every character in some point in the book drinks some whiskey. So, at first I thought… well, I love me a good ‘ole Whiskey Sour!! But… that was just a little boring for this book.

Then I stumbled across this PERFECT COCKTAIL on Sipsmith London it’s like a whiskey sour with a crazy twist! (just like this book!) It’s ALSO a modern take on a classic (JUST LIKE THIS BOOK!!) So, here we go!!

Ingredients

.25oz freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 tsp sugar

1oz peaty Scottish whisky

1oz Sloe Gin

1 dash absinthe

1 dash orange bitters

Brandied cherry, to garnish

Directions

Add the lemon juice and sugar to a cocktail shaker and stir to combine.

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4 out of 5 Stars

“So, do you think you wrote a winning story?”

The answer is, yes. Yes they did.

This short story had a FANTASTIC concept!! 4 Authors are contacted via email and informed that they must write and post a short horror story before 8pm, or their lives are forfeit. Out of the 4, only the writer of the best story will survive, but the others will not know where their swift punishment is coming from… or when. The characters are:

Fiona

“She couldn’t remember giving any upcoming authors a hard time. She was always positive and encouraging to them- friendly even. She knew that sometimes at the end of a long convention she could be snippy, especially if she was hungry. It must have been a while back though, she though to herself.”

Diane

“Her writing was still improving with every story, because between her nerves and the tight time frame, she doubted she could have written anything from scratch.”

Drexl

“Drexl ignored her as he pulled on his jeans, leaving his boxers on the floor as a souvenir… well those and the multiple diseases he had probably just given her. Drexl had known for a long time he was unwell, but he hated people and liked causing and seeing pain in others. So he passed it on as his little gift to the world, that and his writing of course.”

Simon

“Simon had found writing by total accident. When he spoke to other authors online, they all seemed to have had a passion about writing their whole lives. While Simon was an avid reader, he had never had any desire to write. It was only when a friend talked him into sending a story into an anthology alongside his own for a bit of support he had decided to give it a go. He was confident he would get an email back politely telling him he couldn’t write, but he had been the one who got accepted while his friend had received a polite decline. Simon wasn’t all-consumed with a need to write after this experience, but he did enjoy the buzz of someone saying they liked his story so he had written another.”

Written with each of the emailed Authors having their own chapter discovering their challenge followed by their subsequent “winning” story, it was a really imaginative way to tell the story!

The one thing that I wished for, was that while the stories written by the authors were fantastic I wish that they had reflected the personalities of the author a little more. I think that would have given us a little more diversity with the type of story and a little more insight into the characters we were rooting for.

But, in saying that, note that I also said that I DID really enjoy the stories! The gratuitous and graphic nature of some of the stories and some of the subject matter may not be for everyone, but I love that Grindhouse sort of feel! I personally think that Simon’s was my favourite.. but, I need you all to read this for yourself, come back and comment below to let me know who’s story you enjoyed the most?? Who should live and who should die? Maybe YOU should decide!

I’d like to thank one of the authors of this story for sending me a copy in exchange for my review, I can’t wait to check out more writing by Kevin J. Kennedy!

He is a Horror Author and publisher from Scotland and fell in love with horror after growing up with shows such as “the Munster’s” and “Eerie Indiana” (which, THANK YOU KEVIN FOR CHOOSING THAT SHOW!! I DIDN’T THINK ANYONE ELSE ACTUALLY KNEW ABOUT IT!) If you would like to check out more on Kevin and his work, you can find him at:

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3.5 out of 5 Stars

A sometimes hilarious, sometimes disturbing compilation of “Campfire stories” involving animals in some capacity and, for the most point.. VERY WELL DONE!

The disappointing story in the mix was the 2nd short story in the compilation “Ninji by Richard A Wentworth” I’m sorry to say that this one was hard to follow with a lot of sentences that didn’t really seem to finish but just….. continuing on with a completely different thought like the train was de-railed. There were also many re-occurring spelling errors (THREW instead of THROUGH, THOUGH instead of THOUGHT, RIDDING instead of RIDING, etc.) and broken sentences like

“You’re on your sailboat! But…how in the world? And were under sail power, too?”

That actually had me highlighting and making notes that just said “???”

But, onwards and upwards! Since it is a group of short stories by different authors I’m not going to take up all of your time giving you a synopsis of each one (and potentially ruining the magic of the journey) instead I will do my favourite thing by giving you some of my favourite quotes from some of the stories to, hopefully, suck you all in!

The Spider Laughs by Linda Hill

“Its deep, throaty, rumbling laugh similar to the way villains laugh just before they blow up orphanages or embezzle money from the elderly, only the spider laughs quieter.”

“Nor am I afraid that it will jump onto my face and suck out all of the juice from my eyeballs leaving them to rattle in my head like shrivelled, dried apricots, because I know this particular spider is not of the eyeball-sucking variety. (Those spiders live in your couch. Not my couch. Your couch.)”

The Legend of the Chucacabra by Jeremy Rodden

“Now afore you all go off on that famous coyote and roadrunner situation, let me stop you . We live in a world of fact, even in the Tooniverse. Some of you may come from some pretty fantastical sections of Toonopolis.” He pointed to me and said, “Yuki there comes from a really wacky part without a lot of grounding in reality.” I wasn’t sure to take offense or to agree with him. Sure, Animetown seemed perfectly normal if it was all you ever knew, but having travelled to other sections of the Tooniverse, I knew it was pretty far on the absurd end of the spectrum at times. Even so, I felt I should defend my home section so I stuck out my tongue and took my right index finger to my lower right eyelid and pulled it down. “Don’t you akanbe me, son,” the cowboy said immediately.”

“This is where the creature earned its nickname: Chucacabra. It derived its name from the Chupacabra, a legend of Latin America in the Real World, but you know, with poop inside of it.”

CATagories for 500 by Clint Doyle

“A dark bolt tore out of the kitchen scrabbling across the floor and under the curtain. What the hell made cats do that anyway? At least it had stopped shredding the chair next to his bed.”

“He sauntered up to his Human charge. This was not his first. In fact, this was his 7th. Two more to go and he could take his place as an Oracle in the collective consciousness. Cats held the memories not only of their past lives, but the collected wisdom of their whole species.”

“He rushed the box in a mad dash to catch whatever had invaded his territory. The box rocked, scooted back several feet from the force of his charge. In the Spirit realm though, Warwick shot his claws into the darkness snaring the intruder.”

Adam, Eve, and Mr. Bubbles by Christina Bergling

“Come on, Adam. You’re Adam . She was Eve. You have a snake. That kind of blatant symbolism just cannot be allowed in the real world.” “So, did you lead her into temptation, Mr. Bubbles? Did you tempt her with the apple and then she cheated on me?” “Don’t be stupid, Adam. I’m just a snake.” “A snake who is talking to me.” “That is talking to you, Adam. You can’t say who; I’m clearly not a person.” “But you are clearly an asshole.”

Demonic Wildlife: A Fantastical Funny Adventure is Best Served With

A Black Cat

In honour of my favourite short story in this mix (can I have CATagories for 500, Alex??) I had to make a black cat.

Ingredients

1 oz blue curacao

1 oz vodka

3 oz lemon lime soda

1 oz cranberry juice

½ oz freshly squeezed lime juice

Lime twist for garnish

Directions

Fill a shaker halfway with ice

Add curacao, vodka and lime juice.

Shake until mixed well.

Add soda and stir.

Pour cranberry juice into a tall glass.

Over the back of a spoon, gently strain the mixed ingredients over the cranberry juice, being careful not to completely mix the two for presentation.